Airbnb Wants NYC to Ease Short-Term Rental Restrictions

Airbnb says New York City’s short-term rental law hasn’t done its job.

“In the wake of stringent measures, consumers are instead facing all-time high hotel prices and residents facing all-time high rents,” the company wrote on its blog Tuesday (Sep. 3) as it called on the city to scale back the regulation.

The company argues that Local Law 18 — which mandates that short-term rental hosts be licensed by the city and comply with occupancy rules and building codes — has not helped lower rents, while hotel prices continue to rise.

Airbnb, which had sued New York over the law, is calling on the city to ease these restrictions so that property owners have a better chance to rent out their places.

“By rolling back parts of the law, the city can increase the supply of accommodations for consumers, support resident hosts, and revitalize local businesses that depend on tourism dollars,” wrote Theo Yedinsky, Airbnb’s vice president of public policy.

A report Tuesday by Bloomberg News notes that the city has shown no indication it plans to change the law. While there was an early processing backlog for hosts’ applications, the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, responsible for the rule’s implementation, offered data showing it has caught up with 99.7% of the 6,672 applications it’s gotten in the last year.

Christian Klossner, executive director of the enforcement office, praised the regulation for helping the city achieve “its goal of enhancing the enforceability of decades-old housing laws that many hosts violated and from which companies profited,” the report said.

The company’s efforts come as the travel industry — while expected to make a record contribution to the global GDP this year — is seeing customers cut back.

For example, the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “The Last Transaction: Family Spending Habits Reveal Merchant Opportunities in Retail and Travel,” shows shifts in spending due to inflation.

“Parents with children at home have notably reduced their discretionary spending, despite generally higher incomes,” PYMNTS wrote last month. “The report shows that 62% of married parents with children earn more than $100,000 annually, but these families have cut back on retail purchases from an average of $147 in 2022 to $114 in 2024.”

While they were 77% more likely to make travel purchases, parents with children have reduced their travel spending by 11% year over year, while childless households have upped their travel expenditure, averaging $620 annually and reaching up to $754 for older consumers.